Baha’i pilgrimage opens our eyes to global community

Jack and Barbara Cook

Special to the Gateway

As the world comes together this year for the International Olympics event, we wish to share our experience from 2007, of the world coming together for an amazing international spiritual event at the Baha’i World Center in Haifa, Israel.

We were among the 400 pilgrims from all parts of the planet gathered together for nine intensive days on God’s Holy Mountain, Mt. Carmel, overlooking the Bay of Haifa, together for prayer, consultation and education.

Every 14 days, a new group of 400 Baha’i pilgrims arrive in Haifa, hosted by the nine members of the Baha’i Universal House of Justice (an administrative body that is democratically elected by and from the general membership of believers every five years). Also hosting were some 200 volunteers who serve in many capacities.

During these nine days, we had the unique opportunity to talk with Baha’is from Denmark, South Africa, Turkey, China, Brazil, Iran, England, Canada, Malaysia, Gambia, Australia, Russia, Samoa, India, Japan, New Zealand and from areas all across the United States. The Baha’i Faith is now the second most widespread religion in the world, second only to Christianity.

Baha’i pilgrims are not only geographically diverse, they also come from many religious backgrounds: Hindu, Jewish, Native American, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, Canadian First People, Muslim and a large cross-section of Christian denominations.

Our backgrounds are Protestant and Catholic; we have been Baha’is for 46 years and are now members of the Gig Harbor Baha’i Community.

Included in our pilgrimage were tours of the Baha’i Holy Places — shrines, residences, gardens, monuments, administrative buildings, archives, a future temple site and the prison city of Akka, believed to be 5,000 years old.

Our guide, a volunteer from Tennessee, related many interesting historical details of how Baha’u’llah (a title meaning the Glory of God), the Prophet Founder of the Baha’i Faith, as a prisoner and exile of the Ottoman Empire to Akka, Israel. With His family and a few believers, He was able to establish a world religion in 163 years.

Our guide also explained how Baha’u’llah’s son and great-grandson developed the beautiful Baha’i World Center, the Shrine of the Bab (The Forerunner of the Faith, whose title “Bab,” means “Gate” in Arabic). It is surrounded by 19 terraces, reaching 900 meters from the base of Mt. Carmel to the summit, containing many exquisite tranquil gardens, waterfalls and sculptures, called by numerous people “the Eighth Wonder of the World,” which has been built by the Baha’is as a gift to be enjoyed by all the people of the world.

Baha’u’llah’s healing message for a troubled world stated that there is only one God, that the guidance of the Great World Religions came from the same Source, in order to carry forth an ever-advancing human civilization, from tribe to city. State, to nation, on to a global community. He emphasized that we are all one human family intended to love and respect one another, in addition to developing the spiritual qualities needed when we leave this world.

Baha’u’llah revealed with his own pen over a 40-year period, from 1852 to 1892, as a prisoner and an exile, a Divine Plan explaining how this Unity in Diversity will be accomplished.

We witnessed the dawning of this reality during our pilgrimage, which increased our confidence in the assured possibility of future world peace.

Jack and Barbara Cook of the Baha’i Faith can be reached at blcjec9@yahoo.com. For more information, visit www.bahai.org.